Washington D.C. Unemployment Data

Unemployment vs. Labor Force in the District of Columbia (1990 - Present)

This interactive graph shows the number of unemployed workers in Washington, D.C., on the x axis compared with the size of the workforce on the y axis. The size and color of the markers change to show increases and decreases in the unemployment rate.

Unemployment in the District was high throughout the 1990s, despite a shrinking workforce. That trend began to turn around in the late 90s, and unemployment was relatively low in the early 2000s.

The monthly data points begin to balloon in late 2008/early 2009, as the recession took hold and hit home following Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy filing and the credit crisis.